19628: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-Who's in charge? No one knows (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Tue, Mar. 02, 2004

SECURITY


Who's in charge? No one knows

Haitian police patrol Port-au-Prince even though no commanders are at their
headquarters; U.S. troops stick to guarding the National Palace; and the
rebels say they are not police replacements.

By NANCY SAN MARTIN AND SUSANNAH A. NESMITH

nsanmartin@herald.com


AN ADMINISTRATOR, at National Police headquarters

PORT-AU-PRINCE -- As the convoy of armed rebels rolled past the National
Palace on Monday, they ignored the few U.S. Marines guarding the seat of the
Haitian government and headed to a police barracks across the street.

''At the moment, we are here to work with the police,'' said Romel Mont St.
Jacques, a rebel commander and former police inspector. ``We had a mission
-- to oust Aristide -- and now we are not here to replace the police.''

Rebels, cops and foreign troops have each staked out territory in this
capital city since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned and went into
exile Sunday, but the relationship among the three forces remains in limbo.

By Monday morning, the multinational forces numbered no more than 400. They
included 200 U.S. Marines, 130-150 French gendarmes and soldiers and 30-50
Canadian security forces.

But their mission was to prepare the way for the arrival of other forces --
some 2,000 Marines, up to 2,500 other foreign police and troops -- and there
was no decision on whether they would try to exercise control over
Port-au-Prince, said Raul Duany, spokesman for the Pentagon's Southern
Command in Miami.

''I don't think we'll see any patrols going out to the city,'' Duany said.
``We need more personnel and a better definition of the mission.''

The Marines' current rules of engagement prohibit them from making contacts
with the rebels, Duany added. But Marines did deploy a unit to guard the
National Palace -- in effect protecting President Boniface Alexandre, the
Supreme Court chief justice who replaced Aristide.

>From the cheerful welcome the rebels received when they entered
Port-au-Prince on Monday, it would appear they are the new authority in the
capital. But Haitians also cheered Sunday when the National Police took
control of the capital's streets following a bloody outburst by Aristide
supporters.

The arrival of the foreign security forces helped tamp down the violence.
But the political violence and looting since the insurgency against Aristide
began Feb. 5 still hang over the city.

NO COMMANDERS

Police officers patrolled the streets again Monday. But at the national
headquarters, no supervisors could be found. All the phones had been
disconnected and the building, like many other police posts, had been
thoroughly looted.

''There is no commander here,'' said an administrator who declined to give
his name. ``Everything is disorganized. We are waiting for the international
community to come and help us.''

Jocelyne Pierre, the director general for the National Police, said she was
counting on the foreign forces to reestablish order but had not figured out
how her police would cooperate with the foreign soldiers or the rebels.

''Today, I am here,'' she said. ``Tomorrow, there could be someone else.''

In the meantime, she said, she has tried to regain control of the force --
believed to have shrunk from 6,000 to less than 4,000 as the rebels pushed
toward the capital and pro-Aristide gunmen took to the streets to defend
him.

''I have requested for all the police in the territory to bring in their
uniforms and badges so that they can distinguish themselves from the rest,''
Pierre said. ``We need to distinguish between the police and those who are
acting illegally as army units. It's difficult to tell who are the rebels
and who are the armed gangs pretending to be army.''

She declined to say whether she considered rebel leader Guy Philippe an
outlaw. Philippe fled to the neighboring Dominican Republic in 2000 after he
was accused by the Aristide government of plotting several coups and drug
trafficking.

''I don't want to pronounce what Guy Philippe is,'' she said. ``For one
reason or another, this is the situation we're in.''

Asked why some of her police officers had joined the rebels on Monday,
helping the rebel motorcades move about the capital, Pierre said: ``I cannot
tell you that right now.''

But some of her officers, such as Blac Sephas, a nine-year veteran of the
force, said it was a matter of harsh reality.

''In this moment, we are obliged to follow like everyone else,'' Sephas said
as he watched the rebels celebrate their victory. ``We're all Haitians.
We've got peace now so I can accept that.''

The rebels, meanwhile, are trying to portray themselves as a reconstituted
national army -- which Aristide abolished in 1995 -- rather than a domestic
security force and said they would cooperate with the foreign peacekeepers.

`LIKE BROTHERS'

''We do not have problems with the international forces,'' said Louis-Jodel
Chamblain, a high-ranking rebel. ``We are together with them like
brothers.''

The rebels also appear to have the support of the opposition. ''I believe
the new national government needs to negotiate with all the forces in the
country to resolve the insecurity,'' said opposition leader Victor Benoit.

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